About 320 meters to the south-west of Anand Mahal stands a curious structure which gives an impression of an old and dilapidated Hindu temple. Except the surrounding wall it is wholly made up of pillars, beams and slabs taken from old Hindu Shrines. The entrance porch to the enclosure is in fact a part of Hindu temple with in situ hall or mandap with its pilasters and niches, but now devoid of its roof. This is the earliest in Bijapur dated to 1320 CE built by one Revaya, an architect of Salotgi (Salhasdage) under orders of Karim-ud-din. Karim-ud-din, son of Malik Kafur, General of Alauddin Khilji, seems to have become the Governor of Bijapur in 14th century CE after the death of his father. This building is a rectangular enclosure with a handsome vestibule in front, the portico of which spreading in to the wings fills the front of the mosque. The style of architecture belongs to the oldest Hindu buildings in the Deccan with massive slabs of granite passing from one column to the other to form the roof and in close contact with each other without cement or other joining substance. According to Henry Cousens, this building had been erected from miscellaneous material obtained from one or more Hindu temples. It is also said that originally it was an Agrahara, a Hindu college, which was converted in to a mosque on Malik Kafur’s instruction. Around the mihrab in the back wall are inscribed portions of the holy Quran.

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Dharwad Circle

Karim-ud-din’s Mosque

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Karim-ud-din’s Mosque

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